Monday, June 3, 2024

Yesterday was food shopping day. I have gotten much better at not overbuying food when here over the years but DD has enough food for 3 weeks even though they are only here until Friday. I think we are going to end up with a lot of their leftovers. So much for not over shopping.

Today we are going to go out for lunch as our main meal of the day vs dinner because we have a sunset sail planned. It is a favorite of the kids though we really don't care much about it other than being on a boat on the water. They play loud music and serve rum punch drinks which I am not inclined to partake as sweet drinks like that really turn me off.

I can see why DD is not losing weight on semaglutide but don't know if I should say anything. She is expecting it to be a magic pill turning off her hunger and she is eating smaller portions of solid food, but she consumes a ton of calories via liquids. She has never successfully dieted previously so is not applying any of those rules we all learned such as eating protein first to fill up and not drinking our calories.

Time for our daily walk. I just consumed an extra 16 ounces of water to stave off dehydration. Have a marvelous Monday!

155.6

Hey there, sun-sand-and surf girl! Your upcoming sailing adventure (yes, minus the noise) sounds lovely. When I took DH sea fishing ....so fun...all day affair- brought Red Snapper home- yummy. Kurt, however, was "one and done". So much for rollicking on open waters.

Woke up to thunder and rain again this morning. The wheat farmers are getting a bit nervous. Many acres of crop lost on bottom land due to flooding some weeks ago. Of the remaining- the rain is good up to a point; the closer it gets to harvest the wheat you want warm, sunny and dry to properly ripen. Now, then- corn men are doing rain dancing....

Kurt is off to town - Swanny and I are off to the Pink room for some tea and mending ...

I heard it said in church yesterday that "if you name it, so it will be..." , so yes, I'm thinking this is going to be a most Marvelous Monday.

To speak u*****t.....yes, it is so hard to find the right words, such a thin line to walk. A wrong word one side of the line and best intentions are turned to hurtful words. Am hoping for a good outcome as I'm sure she wants this to work as much or more than you wi**** for her.
If anything is true, Liquid calories are about (if not) the slippery-est , slider foods out there. Worse still, since they are already mostly glucose in liquid form, they slip right through the pylorus and quickly stored (we all know too well where) through the small intestine.

I think it would sting no matter how you said it, but given she has a wedding coming up she wanted to lose for, maybe frame it with that? First maybe ask if she wants your advice. If no, then don't. But if she's open maybe say, "I only offer this advice because you started the meds to lose weight for the wedding and I want your day to be everything you hope for. I can see you are eating less, but I think you may not be seeing the results on the scale because of sneaky liquid calories..."

Good suggestion - I know advice from a parent can often feel like criticism which I really don't want her to feel.

Liz, I think you have three options with DD: 1) say nothing; 2) wait for her to bring up her frustration regarding lack of weight loss and then share your observations and experience; or 3) ASK if you may offer your observations and advice. If she says yes, go for it. If her answer is no, then let it rest.

I think framing the conversation with the intent of wanting her wedding day to be everything she hopes it to be will help greatly.

If I may offer my two cents.... I have taken both semaglutide and tirzepatide now. If your DD is willing to switch to tirzepatide, I would encourage her to do that. I find it more effective and more gentle than the semaglutide.

Not going to lie: so glad I don't have to deal with navigating relationships with adult children. My dad was great at stepping back and letting us grow into independent adults. My mom was never really able to manage letting go of her maternal control. As an adult with grown nieces and nephews, I can see what a tenuous line parents of adult children must walk to maintain a healthy, supportive relationship with their offspring! NOT EASY!

Weight is back down to weight I can live with for the moment. I'm down 3 pounds from that blip up last week. I was careful to stay hydrated this weekend and ate appropriately. Well, if I am honest, Saturday was less then stellar. I ate some junk in the afternoon at the dog show (a lemon bar and two home made cookies made by a baker friend). That killed my appetite for dinner, so I didn't really eat dinner and then nibbled on some jerky for dinner and then had a little ice cream. Not my finest hour, but real. What struck me was the fact that the relatively small amount of food, though calorie dense, actually made me lose my appetite. That HAS to be the tirzepatide. I can tell you VSG or not, that snack would have never previously affected my appetite in such a way.

I am 5 pounds below driver's license weight. Yippee! Two NSVs this weekend: First one - my friend brought me a pride shirt back from her Disneyland visit last weekend. I asked her for an XL. She held it up to herself and decided best to buy me an XXL. She still was seeing me at my previous weight. The XXL, as Ron put it, drapes over me and makes me look fat and I quote, "...hides your V shape." Sorry, not gonna wear that, when I feel so good about my progress. 2nd one and possibly even more important - I walked around the dog show without my jacket or grooming apron on, with my polo shirt tucked into my pants. While still thick, there is no longer a big ole belly hanging over my belt. Being in public with a tucked in shirt and not feeling self conscious and ugly is a very good thing for me.

Work is over for the summer! Yeah!!!! I am having a planned day of nothing much today. I think that's important for the first day of summer break. Another work note - our tentative agreement for next year was approved by the union. The school board should approve it tonight. That means my medical goes back to the full coverage, no deductible plan during open enrollment and I will get to keep that coverage all the way through my 65th b'day! So, so happy for that! That will be one expense off my plate in my first years of retirement. Now, if we can only convince the district to offer lifetime medical to cover Medicare supplements, I'd really be set!

My brother decided to buy a new home in Reno. Booooo! At least he won't move right away as the house still needs to be built. He won't move until sometime next year.

That's it from here on my merry Monday morning!

We did discuss a possible change from semaglutide to Tirzepatide and I said I would cover the increased cost.

I'm curious about your comment that Tirzepatide is gentler...how so? I do have still some unpleasant side effects from the semaglutide. I wanted to switch to Tirzepatide, but as you know, it's unavailable thru Henry Meds, and as I was losing ok with the semaglutide, I didn't look further into switching. Now that I am trying to maintain, I would love something "gentler"!

I have a friend (who has not had WLS) who has tried both semaglutide and tirzepatide. She has done much better on the tirzepatide, but she also refuses to change her eating habits much (orange juice for breakfast every morning, lots of carbs rather than protein, etc). So she is losing, but very slowly, and I doubt she will reach her goal. I think the nutrition lessons and "rules" we all learned from the VSG re protein first, not drinking calories, etc. have been SO valuable.

And yay on being BELOW the driver's license weight. That's always a big one for me too!

Lizanne

On the semaglutide I had pretty intense gut reaction when I first started. I even threw up my lunch roughly 36-40 hours after my first injection. My symptoms lessened each week, though I did have a bout of absolutely horrible and urgent diarrhea after the 3rd or 4th injection. But since it did not happen after the next injection, I chocked it up to a Noro Virus. After every injection I had mild stomach cramping and occasional waves of nausea. Nothing I couldn't handle, but I love that with the tirzepatide, I have had no negative side effects at all. No little stomach cramps. No twinges of nausea. Yet, the work it does on hunger, obsessive thinking, and emotional satiety is fantastic! It is not a magic pill, but it sure does make the work so much easier. I find that I'm able sense satiety much earlier on the tirzepatide, too. The meds have been a game changer for me. The only thing I am having to track is protein - and then I'm just doing it loosely - not writing anything down. Just keeping mental track.

I didn't try the semaglutide at all. I have no side effects from tirzepatide though. Though I sometimes am a bit jittery the day after first thing in the morning (it goes away). HenryMeds had given me anti-nausea medication in case I needed it but I have never used it.